Political Party Pledges 

With 14 October fast approaching, the General Election is provoking much discussion around the country. As employment lawyers, we have been keeping an eye on the various Party policies being released which may impact on employers as election day looms. Below is our (apolitical!) take on it all:

National Party

The National Party has been relatively quiet on the workplace relations front to date. However,  the Nats have recently released their 100 Day Action Plan which gives some indication as to where the National Party’s priorities lie.

National has pledged to repeal the Fair Pay Agreements Act that Labour put in to force in November 2022. The aim of fair pay agreements is to put into a place a framework for minimum employment terms across an industry or an occupation. None are yet in place and a handful are at bargaining stage. National has indicated that the Act will be repealed and that the Party will instead support employers and employees to make arrangements which suit them on an individual basis.

Earlier this year, National supported the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Shared Leave) Amendment Bill. The Bill would allow flexibility to parents to take leave at the same time, one after the other or in overlapping instalments. The support of this Bill continues to be a part of National’s employment policy. 

Labour’s proposed Income Insurance Scheme is another subject of contention between the major political parties. The Income Insurance Scheme would operate similar to the ACC scheme by using contributions made from employers and employees to support people who encounter sudden or unexpected unemployment. National pledges to stop all work on this project.

ACT Party

The ACT Party has made a series of workplace relations announcements, and re-emphasised its support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This includes putting a pause on minimum wage increases for three years, reinstating 90-day trials for all businesses (not just those with less than 20 employees), and amending the Health and Safety at Work Act to allow for employees to be held personally liable in circumstances where they have acted in a wilfully irresponsible manner. 

The ACT Party has labelled the personal grievance process as too slow and costly, particularly for SMEs. As a means to address the untimely process of resolving a personal grievance dispute, ACT will impose a deadline of one month for Employment Relations Authority Members to issue their determinations. If they fails to do so, the penalty may be the termination of their employment as an Authority Member. 

ACT  would also intend to remove the eligibility of an employee to receive remedies if they had engaged in blameworthy conduct. The ACT Party also supports the removal of the remedy of unilateral reinstatement for unjustified dismissal, which is currently the primary remedy. Reinstatement would only be provided as a remedy where the employer consents to it. 

ACT has expressed the importance of protecting choice and freedom to contract. Accordingly, the Party pledges to reform the Employment Relations Act to expressly exclude contractors from the statutory definition of ‘employee’. As a consequence, contractors would no longer be able to challenge their employment status in the Employment Court. Under ACT’s proposal, employers seeking to enter into contracting arrangements would have to ensure that the engagement meets certain criteria and complies with the proposed minimum standards of the contract framework.

Labour Party

The Labour Party has recently released their Policy Manifesto for 2023, with the employment relations focus on secure, high-paying jobs. Labour would of course continue with the Fair Pay Agreements scheme which it introduced in 2022. 

Late 2021 saw the Labour Party announce the Income Insurance Scheme to provide better protections for workers, and the economy. Although this policy was placed on the back-burner for the remainder of Labour’s term due to the recession, Labour has committed to furthering policy development in this area if re-elected.

Although emphatically opposing National’s Flexible Parental Leave policy, Labour has committed to four weeks’ Paid Partners Leave in response (currently, partners do not receive any paid leave from the Government). The scheme would be phased in from 1 July 2024, and would allow parents to take parental leave concurrently. 

Labour will also make employer contributions to KiwiSaver mandatory for employees enrolled in KiwiSaver under the age of 18, and over the age of 64. Currently it is optional for employers to make KiwiSaver contributions for these employees.

In August, the Government proposed mandatory gender pay gap reporting for organisations with over 250 employees, in efforts to identify and address the drivers of gender pay gaps. The reporting will initially be imposed on approximately 900 organisations, however, after 4 years the scope of this policy will eventually expand to include organisations with over 100 employees. Our Employment Team recently discussed this in the Dentons ESG Newsletter.

Labour have also supported greater protections for employees through the Restraint of Trade Amendment Bill and the Worker Protection Act. We discussed these changes in our previous newsletters – The Employment Echo.

Green Party

The Green Party has released their Policy Manifesto 2023, which, from a workplace relations perspective, is focused on employee rights. In pursuit of this, the Greens will guarantee minimum wage increases at least in line with inflation and will provide all working people with a right to redundancy pay. Similar to Labour, the Green Party support an income insurance scheme that centres the need for equity, especially for employees in low-paying and insecure jobs.

The Green Party plans to implement the recommendations from the Holidays Act Taskforce Report by making amendments to the Holidays Act 2003. As part of this policy, the Greens want to phase in five weeks of annual leave, increase paid parental leave entitlements to a total of 15 months, introduce a carers’ leave for those caring for dependent family members, and ensure that bereavement leave is culturally appropriate particularly in regards to tangihanga for Māori. 

A big focus in the Greens’ Manifesto is collective bargaining and union membership. As part of this, the Greens would make the move to default union membership, making union membership an ‘opt-out’ rather than an ‘opt-in’ decision. The Greens support the Fair Pay Agreement Act introduced by Labour last year, and hope to promote industry-specific collective bargaining frameworks for all employees, including contractors. The Employment Relations Authority would also received greater resources, to more easily provide employees with the opportunity to uphold their workplace rights.

So, what might a National/Act or Labour/Green government look like?

With a National/Act government, we can expect to see:

• Fair pay agreements repealed. 
• 90-day trial periods for all employers will likely be reinstated. 
• A more simplified dispute resolution process for personal grievance claims, and the removal of reinstatement as the primary remedy for such claims. 
• Some impact on worker status claims - contractors will likely see the introduction of minimum standards that make it difficult to challenge their employment status. 
• Although National has not issued any policy on minimum wage increases, a coalition with ACT would likely put a pause on increases for at least 3 years.

Under a Labour/Green government, we can expect:

• Greater rights and protections will be afforded to employees. 
• Probable minimum wage increases and the promised reform to the Holidays Act. 
• Continuation of fair pay agreements.
• The introduction of Labour’s proposed mandatory gender pay gap reporting. 
• More protections for contractors – although what that might look like is unclear.
• Improving bargaining rights and the collective bargaining framework.

This newsletter contains contributions from: Luke Ji and Bella Cronin-Stone.

For further information on employment related matters, please visit our Global Employment hub, where you can find updates from many jurisdictions, including New Zealand, or reach out to one of our partners – Charlotte Parkhill, Greg Cain, James Warren or Renee Butler.